In the most complex way actually just over complex Francis Ford Coppola's latest movie Megalopolis is quite something different but weird?, is not a movie for everyone and for the most part the movie is all over the place with some cool moments that are a big let down, kinda 0 to 100 real quick in the bad way. At 85, Coppola decided to put his money where his mouth is, literally merged his Francis Ford Coppola Winery with Delicato Family Wines in 2021 in a deal worth about $650 million, to finance this $120 million ambition that has been in his head since the '80s. After watching this movie I can say it’s a messy but strangely captivating one that let me with mixed feelings, but I was more entertained than I thought, even if not always for the right reasons, this movie can make you mad, when writing this post I got to that place but not as negative as most people online.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10128846/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
It’s set in New Rome City, which is basically New York with a golden filter, the filter not my favorite aspect of the movie, and some Roman Empire aesthetics thrown in. Adam Driver plays Caesar Catilina who is this genius architect who invented some miracle material called Megalon, but he is having a long term argument with Mayor Cicero played by Giancarlo Esposito, who wants to leave things as they are. It’s all just one big spin of family drama, political commentary and philosophical smoke that sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn’t. One thing Caesar can do is stop time when he feels like it, which doesn’t make much sense as to why this is and doesn’t really add much to the story other than some cool visuals. All sorts of subplots pop up and disappear faster than you can remember them and this weird moment where Caesar gets accused of something terrible, only to be ignored in the next scene as fake news.
All of the performances in this movie are all over the place, everything is very average in the verge of been a bad movie, probably why I gave it no more than a 6.5/10. Adam Driver goes all in with his intensity and switches between these Shakespeare quoting moments, he literally busts out "To be or not to be" in the middle of a scene about building a casino, so cliche made me fell like "is this guy for real?" but on other more grounded scenes where he's trying to sell his vision of a perfect city felt very passionate. As Mayor Cicero, Giancarlo Esposito delivers exactly what you’d expect from him, that controlled authority we’ve seen him perfect in other roles. Aubrey Plaza plays Wow Platinum; this name really throw me off like someone ran out of ideas, and "Wow" intentionally mispronounces words throughout the film, just one of those weird creative choices that makes you wonder what was going on during filming. Then we got Shia LaBeouf, he shows up as this Trump like character named Clodio, and it feels like it’s from a completely different movie but it somehow fits in this strange world Coppola has created, see how this movie is all over the place, love and hate relationship.
Megalopolis has probably divided opinion more than most films, which isn't surprising for a film that's so unconventional in every possible way you could think about, I could literally see people walking out of theaters, while others attracted to the weirdness of the film are more attracted to its ambition, and its unique vision. A major point of controversy has been the visual effects, which are stunning in the way that the city is golden and futuristic in some moments before falling into the 2000s video game aesthetic in others. It’s jarring that the quality is so inconsistent, but it makes the film feel so strange.
This mess of a movie drew me weirdly in, for multiple purpose since I'm the type of guy that has to watch a movie specially when people are saying is that bad, I saw Madam Web despite, what can I saw I'm attract to weird movies too. Megalopolis rarely makes sense but there’s something wonderful about watching a great director take a chance and just do it, you got to respect that at least, even when Shia LaBeouf’s character starts leading MAGA style rallies in the film, the film’s attempts at political commentary are so heavy handed that they are cringe worthy, a movie full of optimism about the possibility of building a better world to a point that you might believe it is.
The biggest problem with Megalopolis seems to be that it has no clear story or structure at all, it gets thrown around plot threads which are never resolved or explained. For instance, Caesar's ability to stop time is never portrayed and not used in the story for meaning, along with other random elements in the film, it's just there for unknown reason. Moving through timeline jumping back and forth between serious philosophical discussions and absurdly out of place moments, you then have scenes with characters quoting Shakespeare at random, followed by a montage of Elvis impersonators singing the national anthem amid the chaos and even a parade of clowns dancing to the main character while he’s on drugs, such an abrupt shifts make it difficult for viewers to feel for the story, figure out what type of movie it is, sci fi? drama? fantasy?.
The fact that it’s called New Rome City but is very obvious is New York makes it confusing to be hones, with modern elements like QR codes but the film never settles or explains its world. There’s also a main plot about building a utopian city out of a magical material, which is also poorly explained same as stopping time, and doesn’t even explain how it would work or solve real world problems. There is also the problem with a great set of actors when each actor in a different movie, or are they competing to be the main attraction the hole movie? This only further complicates the matter by adding that inconsistency in acting styles.
Coppola has put countless years into this project, so it’s disappointing when the final product feels like a messy compilation of concepts without a clear vision or true intention for why it was being made in the first place, one that makes audiences feel dumb and bored instead of entertained or otherwise educated, Shakespeare? really?.
The rest of Megalopolis is just as wild as the ending, even after the political drama, the philosophical debates, the random time stopping moments, we finally get this surreal sequence where Adam Driver's character is on drugs and clowns dance through Madison Square Garden. The film fails to stitch up its themes of the fall of empires and the possibility of building a better society, in such a roundabout way At the end, we focus on a child, which gives us some hope for the future but the way this movie works, it’s more the feeling than anything else and even that doesn’t make sense in the logical sense, its like those kind of weird but good videos that make no sense but its multiple scenes with the same effect one after another, like watching clips of you favorite movie moments, except on Megalopolis they are mostly bad. That is how it feels Copola wanted the movie to talk to the audience but to be honest it failed.
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